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I've got a shapton 500 and a green brick. When I use the green brick, it all goes well for a whole bunch of strokes and then Whammo! - gouge. I can't seem to catch myself doing anything different on the gouge stroke than the stroke before. Puzzled a bit....

franzb69

Post subject: Re: What am I doing to cause gouging

Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 2:48 am

Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2012 4:29 amPosts: 622Location: Philippines

a lighter touch is needed for softer stones. check your angle as you might be going too obtuse as you go, a constant proper angle is needed.

practice practice practice.

it's all i ever did for close to a year with softer stones with softer steeled knives. then when i felt i had enough practice i started getting better knives and better stones.

Even though i am still a beginner, I find that most of my gouging has been due to my wrist rolling up on the push stroke (blade facing away). Luckily the softer stones have been fairly easy to flatten the gouges out of I'm with Franz in that as a beginner I still use cheap stones and practice on cheap knives. In fact the worst gouge I ever had was when I thought I had some skill and tried my Tojiro ITK (White #2?) on an 8k stone. Knife stopped dead in its tracks and took out a pretty good chunk. After I fixed the stone (and blade albeit much more slowly and carefully), it was back to crappy stainless and more technique than actual sharpening. Keep practicing and you'll be ok...at least thats what i keep telling myself!

Chris

franzb69

Post subject: Re: What am I doing to cause gouging

Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 4:31 am

Joined: Wed Apr 25, 2012 4:29 amPosts: 622Location: Philippines

i've come up with several techniques of sharpening, free hand ambidextrous and free hand left hand only with my right hand only for guiding the blade (i'm left handed). just keep watching sharpening videos by mark, murray carter, jon broida, and all the sharpening people on youtube. you might find a technique you actually like or even take certain styles of sharpening from one or more and make them your own.

see murray's sharpening vids on youtube, you'll see him only using king stones on knives and he achieves great success with them. they're softer stones and yet he sharpens all types of knives of varying hardness, quality and steels.

there are really no wrong stones or wrong knives. it just matters how much you wanna learn from one or the other. at least that's what i've learned from murray.

some stones will just take you longer to get to your destination. but sometimes it's the sharpening that's fun and not getting the edge just sharp. but then again if you're sharpening like 4 or 5 at a time, you'd really want fast cutting stones and not one that cut slow and will take you hours to just to finish a number of knives.

it's the process of achieving your goal and learning from it is what's important.

ok i'm blabbing too much. this is the problem when all you've got in your stomach is chocolates and water all day. lol.

Adam Marr

Post subject: Re: What am I doing to cause gouging

Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 7:40 am

Forum Moderator

Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2012 1:36 pmPosts: 3330

Yeah, it's the rolling of your wrist.

A really soft stone is great at showing you all of your flaws.

So a lighter touch at first will help. Go slower too....not too slow, but slow enough to maintain a perfect angle.

I am new to sharpening also and my results soared after learning to lock my wrists. I watched a ton of videos and tried several techniques and settled on a technique similar to Curtis Chung's. Freehand ambidextrous. I can lock my wrists, elbows and to some degree my shoulders and just rotate my torso. My stone is turned sideways ie. east and west.

Wil

Post subject: Re: What am I doing to cause gouging

Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 11:11 am

Joined: Wed Feb 20, 2013 3:25 pmPosts: 45

Thanks Fellers!I've got a whole bunch of stone left and most of the blade on a couple of Tojiro ITKs. I'll keep whackin' at it! It appears that I'm losing concentration and the motion hasn't reached automatic state as yet. Getting a harder stone will seemingly fix the gouging but will not fix the basic problem - is that correct?

Melampus

Post subject: Re: What am I doing to cause gouging

Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 11:27 am

Forum Moderator

Joined: Wed May 16, 2012 10:42 amPosts: 3915Location: USA... mostly.

WIL <> The problem is the technique, not the stone. You are implementing inconsistent grind angles. A harder stone will just damage the blade instead of the stone. You're better off with softer stones until you graduate up.

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Adam Marr

Post subject: Re: What am I doing to cause gouging

Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 11:37 am

Forum Moderator

Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2012 1:36 pmPosts: 3330

Yes, it will not fix the underlying problem and the problem you will continue to have if you don't fix it is rounding the edges. If you have a hard stone, you won't gouge the stone.....but you can round the edge as you twist your wrist.

Holding the knife at a 45* angle to the stone as apposed to a 90* angle helped me with the wrist rolling and gouging my stones. Helped me to learn consistency a little faster. I now have little trouble holding the blade at any angle to the stone. I am still not a master sharpener by any means.

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